ABSTRACT

Despite donor assistance and government subsidies, the uptake of microinsurance products to insure against extreme climate events remains low in many climate vulnerable economies. Emerging evidence indicates that various non-price factors such as lack of knowledge, trust in institutions, beliefs, and perceptions about climate change partly explain the low uptake. This study uses the CVM approach to investigate the effect of one such factor – farmers’ climate change perceptions – on the adoption of weather index micro-insurance. We introduce two hypothetical weather index microinsurance products to farming households in Nepal: the first one (basic) insures paddy only, whereas the second one (comprehensive) also insures livestock. We use bivariate probit models with order effects for empirical estimation. We find that households’ ex ante perception of future climate change as well as their ex-post perceptions of past climate change impacts have significant effects on their microinsurance purchase decisions. Mean WTP-values for the basic and comprehensive products are NRs. 3096 and NRs. 13209 respectively. We also find some evidence of crowding-out effects on private risk transfer markets by other public and donor climate adaptation programmes. Our findings suggest that public policies should focus on increasing climate awareness, accountability and the development of competitive microinsurance markets.

摘要

尽管有捐助者援助和政府补贴，但在许多气候脆弱的经济体中，为应对极端气候事件提供保险的小额保险产品的使用率仍然很低。新出现的证据表明，各种非价格因素，如缺乏知识、对机构的信任、信仰和对气候变化的看法，部分解释了低吸收率。本研究使用 CVM 方法来调查这样一个因素——农民对气候变化的看法——对天气指数小额保险的采用的影响。我们向尼泊尔的农户介绍了两种假设的天气指数小额保险产品：第一种（基本）只为稻谷提供保险，而第二种（综合）也为牲畜提供​​保险。我们使用具有顺序效应的双变量概率模型进行经验估计。我们发现家庭的对未来气候变化的事前看法以及他们对过去气候变化影响的事后看法对他们的小额保险购买决策有重大影响。基本产品和综合产品的平均 WTP 值是 NR。3096 和 NR。分别为 13209。我们还发现了其他公共和捐助气候适应计划对私人风险转移市场产生挤出效应的证据。我们的研究结果表明，公共政策应侧重于提高气候意识、问责制和发展有竞争力的小额保险市场。